RIYADH (Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Saudi Arabia on Monday released a SAR690 billion ($184 billion) budget for 2012 that outlines lower revenues and less spending for the coming year, while maintaining much of the large-scale expenditure on jobs, housing and other public services that the kingdom launched amid the regional political unrest accompanying the Arab Spring.
The Ministry of Finance, in a statement announcing the budget, said it expected to take in SAR702 billion in revenue next year, and spend SAR690 billion, with an emphasis on balanced development "as well as more employment opportunities and job creation."
The resulting budget surplus for 2012 of SAR12 billion was well below the SAR306 billion predicted for 2011, when revenues were boosted by rebounding global oil prices and near-record Saudi oil output. Total revenues for 2011 should come to SAR 1,110 billion, the ministry said in the same statement.
The final tab for expenditures in 2011 should come to SAR804 billion, the ministry said. Salary bonuses and other government extras announced by King Abdullah's government last spring, as uprisings erupted elsewhere in the Middle East, resulted in expenditure that exceeded the original 2011 budget by SAR224 billion, the ministry said.
/129
